A second North Korean soldier defects to the South

South Korea says it has fired 20 rounds of warning shots as North Korean soldiers approached a military demarcation line at the border after their comrade defected to South Korea.

Seoul's Defense Ministry says the shootout happened after a North Korean soldier safely arrived at a front-line South Korean guard post on Thursday.

Yonhap news agency says there were sounds of gunfire from the North after South Korea's warning shots. South Korea's Defense Ministry couldn't immediately confirm the report.

North Korean soldiers have occasionally fled through the land border. Thursday's defection came nearly 40 days after another North Korean soldier crossed the jointly controlled area at the border amid a barrage of bullets fired by comrades.

A UNC Special Investigation Team investigation revealed North Korea's actions during the November escape twice violated the UN Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War by “firing weapons across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and when the defecting soldier actually temporarily crossed the MDL”.

A UN Command statement said officials notified the North's military of these violations and requested a meeting to discuss the investigation results and measures to prevent future such violations.

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The soldier was shot multiple times and required emergency surgery in South Korea.

While treating the wounds, surgeons removed dozens of parasites from the soldier's ruptured small intestine including presumed roundworms that were as long as 27 centimetres, which may reflect poor nutrition and health in North Korea's military.

The JSA, jointly overseen by the UNC and by North Korea, is inside the four kilometre-wide Demilitarised Zone, which has been the defacto border between the Koreas since the war.

Seoul's Defense Ministry says there was no shootout when the latest North Korean soldier used a different section of the border to defect.

It says the motive for the defection is under investigation.

About 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea mostly via China since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.